Category "baking"

How can I check if a blind baked dough is done?

Often, when I'm blind baking things, I'm always unsure whether or not the dough is finished. I always put a piece of foil between the crust and the rice. Is th

When is it necessary to cover food with aluminum foil during baking/roasting?

Often a recipe calls for covering a dish while it bakes. I understand that this can help to trap steam. How do you know when it's necessary to use aluminum foi

How to melt glucose?

I recent backed a pie that included glucose and the recipe pretty much only said melt glucose...nothing about how to use it which lead me to much agony :) So t

Do I really need pastry flour in my molasses cookie recipe?

I have a recipe for molasses cookies that calls for 3 parts regular flour to 1 part pastry flour for the flour component. It mentions that you can use whole whe

What determines the shape-holding ability of cookies?

What things can you vary to make cookies hold their shape better during cooking, and not spread out like a pancake? From my experimenting, the initial temperat

Storing bread dough before baking

I'm looking to make a start in the world of baking bread, and have a quick question: Once my dough is kneaded, proved and ready to go in the oven (i.e. in the

How can I bake bread using a mother culture?

If I want to make bread using a 'mother' culture what do I need to do? How do I go about starting the 'mother'? How should I keep the 'mother' going? and how

What kind of beer for beer bread?

Beer bread is bread wherein beer is used for liquid and leavening. I tend to use a basic pilsner, but I'm a beer snob, and I've taken to wondering what would ha

What is the proper usage of a pie bird?

I have one of those ceramic pie birds that vent steam from a pie while it bakes. What benefit does using this provide to the end result? Also, in what types o

Proper Technique for Rolling Sugar Cookies

I have an old recipe of my grandmother's for sugar cookies and I'd love for them to turn out just like hers. However, whenever I try to roll out the dough, I fi

How do I prevent cream puff shells from deflating?

Every time I try to bake cream puffs the shells deflate before I can fill them with the cream. I have tried poking a hole in the shell with a toothpick in th

Why do my brownies inconsistently end up hard and thin?

When I make brownies, I sometimes end up with really hard thin brownies instead of thick fudgy soft brownies. I bake them the same amount of time, use the same

When baking what works well as a sugar substitute?

I'm curious about what I can use for a sugar substitute while baking. I'm not interested in artificial sweetners, really. For instance, I've found that apple ju

Techniques to get a nice golden-brown crust on bread

How do I make sure the crust of a baguette, etc. turns out a nice golden-brown when baking?

How to make pizza crust thin and elastic at the same time?

For the title: I'm not sure if "elastic" is the perfect word here, so is anyone knows better one - put it in the comment. I like thin pizza crust, but when I'v

Flaky pie crust for sweet fruit pie: butter, shortening, lard, or combination?

I specify sweet fruit here because I think there would different good answers for a savory or a custard based pie.

Can couverture chocolate be substituted with other ingredients?

I have a brownie recipe that calls for couverture chocolate to be used. Unfortunately it is getting difficult (and expensive) to obtain this chocolate. Is the

Adding fresh herbs in no-knead Bread [closed]

I am experimenting with the no Knead bread recipe and want to add herbs to the recipe. I have added fresh rosemary (great) and fresh oregano (

What are good techniques for getting gluten free bread to rise?

I make gluten free bread in a bread maker, however I can never get it to rise as much as 'regular' bread and is usually a little heavy. What techniques/recipes/

Using skim or low-fat milk in recipes

When a recipe calls for milk, does using skim or low-fat milk over whole milk matter? Even though the difference between whole and skim milk is about 2 percen